Hi there, I'm Rares 👋
Full Stack Developer | Self-Hosting Enthusiast | Infrastructure Automation Advocate
Welcome to my self-hosted Gitea instance! I'm passionate about building robust, scalable applications while maintaining complete control over my development infrastructure.
🚀 About Me
I'm a Full Stack Developer with a deep passion for self-hosting and infrastructure automation. I believe in owning your code, your tools, and your data. When I'm not building web applications, you'll find me optimizing Docker containers, automating deployments, or fine-tuning my home lab infrastructure.
Currently focused on building efficient CI/CD pipelines, creating reusable infrastructure components, and exploring the intersection of modern web development and self-hosted services.
🔧 Technologies & Tools
Languages
Frontend Development
Backend Development
Infrastructure & DevOps
DevOps & Automation
🚀 Featured Projects
🎨 Gitea Customization Infrastructure
Automated deployment pipeline for Gitea UI customizations using Gitea Actions. Features include:
- Custom branding and theming system
- Automated CSS/JS injection via CI/CD
- Profile activity dashboard integration
- Zero-downtime deployments
Tech Stack: Gitea Actions, Docker, Bash, systemd
🧹 Docker Cleanup Automation
Intelligent Docker resource management system with automated cleanup strategies:
- systemd timer-based scheduling
- Multi-stage cleanup with safety checks
- Cache optimization for CI/CD workflows
- Comprehensive logging and monitoring
Tech Stack: Bash, systemd, Docker, cron
🏗️ Self-Hosted Services Stack
Complete infrastructure-as-code for my self-hosted environment:
- Gitea with Act Runner for CI/CD
- Caddy reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS
- WireGuard VPN for secure remote access
- Monitoring and backup automation
Tech Stack: Docker Compose, Caddy, WireGuard, Hyper-V, Ubuntu Server
📊 Gitea Activity Dashboard
Real-time profile activity visualization using Gitea API:
- Commit history and contribution graphs
- Repository statistics
- Recent activity feed
- Responsive design for profile README integration
Tech Stack: JavaScript, Gitea API, HTML/CSS
🔨 Currently Working On
- 🏗️ Building modular infrastructure components for rapid deployment
- 🐳 Optimizing Docker layer caching strategies for faster CI/CD
- 🔐 Implementing automated secrets management for self-hosted services
- 🚀 Exploring advanced Gitea Actions workflows and custom runners
- 📝 Documenting self-hosting best practices and configuration patterns
📚 Learning & Exploring
- Advanced container orchestration patterns
- Infrastructure automation with systemd and custom tooling
- Performance optimization for self-hosted CI/CD pipelines
- Security hardening for internet-exposed services
- Modern frontend architectures with SSR and edge computing
📊 GitHub Stats
👉 View my Live Activity Dashboard for real-time statistics
📫 How to Reach Me
- 📧 Email: [your.email@example.com]
- 💼 LinkedIn: [linkedin.com/in/yourprofile]
- 📝 Blog: [yourblog.com] (coming soon)
- 🌐 Gitea: You're already here!
http://192.168.1.53:3000/[username]
💭 Philosophy
"If you're not self-hosting, you're just renting someone else's computer."
I believe in:
- Ownership - Your code, your infrastructure, your data
- Transparency - Open source tools and documented processes
- Automation - If you do it twice, automate it
- Learning - Every deployment is an opportunity to improve
- Sharing - Knowledge grows when shared with the community
🏆 Achievements & Milestones
- ✅ Built and maintained 100% self-hosted development infrastructure
- ✅ Automated Docker cleanup saving 50GB+ of disk space monthly
- ✅ Zero-downtime CI/CD pipeline with Gitea Actions
- ✅ Custom Gitea UI with automated deployment system
- ✅ Comprehensive documentation for all infrastructure components
🏗️ Infrastructure Overview
My current self-hosted setup runs on:
🖥️ Hyper-V Host (Windows Server)
└─ Ubuntu Server VMs
├─ 🐙 Gitea (Git server + CI/CD)
├─ 🏃 Act Runner (CI/CD executor)
├─ 🔒 Caddy (Reverse proxy + HTTPS)
├─ 🔐 WireGuard (VPN gateway)
└─ 🐳 Docker (Container runtime)
Network: 192.168.1.0/24 (Internal) | WireGuard VPN (Remote Access)
Monitoring: systemd journals + custom logging
Backups: Automated daily snapshots + offsite replication
🔥 Recent Activity
Check out my repositories to see what I'm currently working on!
🎯 2025 Goals
- Migrate more services to self-hosted alternatives
- Build a comprehensive homelab monitoring dashboard
- Contribute to open source self-hosting projects
- Create video tutorials on infrastructure automation
- Implement GitOps workflow for all infrastructure
⚡ Built with self-hosted Gitea ⚡
This profile is served from my own infrastructure - no cloud required!
Explore My Repositories | View Activity Dashboard
Last updated: 2025-11-05